Words...

Welcome to the garden. I swear it feels like October instead of September. I have some heaters placed around. As always, grab some goodies, a drink, and a place to sit. Be ready because I'm rambling today. It's a subject that has kept me up at night. I know it sounds a little over the top, nonetheless it's true.

Definition of WORDSMITH
: a person who works with words; especially : a skillful writer
— word·smith·ery noun

Why does this keep me up at night? The term wordsmith actually doesn't. I consider myself a writer. How skillful depends on what reviewer you ask. What I want to know is; where do words come from? Who thought up what a tree would be called. And why did he/she say 'I think this shall be a tree.' Let's take wordsmith: First Known Use of WORDSMITH 1873. Who decided in 1873, I think writer's will be known as wordsmiths?

As a writer, shouldn't I know where words originated from? Did the caveman just start talking and whatever he said became words? Words come from history and folklore, and some of the folklore is true some not so much. It's all interesting. But still it doesn't answer my question. What was the first word? Who recorded it? Who determined what a scroll was called and later when it evolved, who decided it would be called a book?

Not that everything on the Internet is true, but since I'm not writing this in the library with access to written reference books, I used what was available. The Internet. I found I'm not the only one to ponder such a question. There are pages of articles trying to answer this question. One site is The Human Journey. It is very interesting. I could list them all, you'd quickly become bored if you aren't already. But none really answer the question. They're all theories. Is there an answer?

What is your theory? I'd honestly like to know.